Emerson, Lake, and Palmer albums poll

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Although they were arguably the most popular band of the whole prog rock movement (or 2nd to Yes?), ELP doesn't really get a whole lot of respect these days. I know a lot of you have to own at least one of these albums. I'm constantly flip-flopping between the s/t, Tarkus, BSS, and Welcome Back as my favorite, so I'll leave it up to you guys:

Loved these guys '70-'74, sold most of the albums in a big prog purge later in the decade. I have a vinyl copy of Welcome Back on my shelf that I will in all likelihood never play again in my lifetime. Would probably vote for the debut.

I'll argue that the title track was the predecessor to "Limelight", it really does sound like it to my ears

The only thing I can say about Love Beach is that it's really not half as horrible as you're led to believe, Keith is mostly restrained, the lyrics are cringe-worthy but most of the playing is tasteful. It's better than Works Vol. 1 or any of their 90's stuff.

Trilogy is def my second favorite. While the debut lacks what the later records have in sheer entertainment value, it carries over the best of Crimson's lyricism and the showoff-y playing hasn't pushed aside the songs entirely yet. Plus, "Knife-Edge" is killer.

X-Post: Actually I consider Brain Salad Surgery to be the patchy one, with little of value besides "Karn Evil". But "Karn Evil" takes up half an hour anyway, which makes it my obvious pick nevertheless. I feel that there is a bigger number of stronger tracks on "Trilogy" though, including "From The Beginning" which is their best ever non-prog track.

I only have Tarkus, which I don't think I've ever made it all the way through. I enjoy hearing them on the radio well enough. Anything in particular I really need to check out if I really like Yes/Genesis/Crimson/Tull?

I only have Tarkus, which I don't think I've ever made it all the way through. I enjoy hearing them on the radio well enough. Anything in particular I really need to check out if I really like Yes/Genesis/Crimson/Tull?

― EveningStar (Sund4r)

The best thing about Trilogy (what I'd check out) is "The Endless Enigma (Part One)" and the title track

Regarding ELP's popularity compared to other prog bands, I think they were very huge back then, but it may seem that Yes and Genesis (and King Crimson, but they were partly different and more avant garde, at times slightly closer to krautrock and as such more accepted by people usually not into prog) are more respected in retrospect today, while ELP feel very much of their time.

Did the Love Beach voters go with that one because of the 'Taste Of My Love' lyrics?

Ohhh, you look so hungry womanhow come you strayed in here with your eyes so brighton this long hot night.Could it be for a taste of my loveDown on your knees with your face to the wallSaying please please please.

My friend said I should callwell I do feel lonely womanAnd to tell the truth , I could use some companyto come closer to me.Help yourself to a taste of my love.

Call up room service, order peaches and creamI like my desert first - if you know what I mean.Yeah, taste it , taste it, taste itAround the maze of pleasure to the gates of pain,you're driving me insane.

Take all you need from the taste of my loveI want to love you like nobody ever loved youGet on my stallion and we'll ride.I want to hold you and enfold you beyond reasonI want to dynamite your mind with love tonight.Go down gently with your face to the eastThe sun may be rising but we haven't finished the beast.

Ohhh, you still look hungry womanI'm glad your came in here with your eyes so bright,on this long hot nightYou need love - I need love, here it comes , the taste of my love.

I'm gonna love you like nobody ever loved youclimb on my rocket and we'll fly.Over the moon past the sun till we findthe gates of heaven open wide for loversI'm gonna love you like nobody ever loved youclimb on my rocket and we'll fly.

I just heard an album called "Keith Emerson Band featuring Marc Bonilla" and it's actually quite close to classic ELP - there's a 30-minute suite that's kinda like "Tarkus" (not quite as good, but very listenable), a Ginastara cover, a goofball ragtime tune, and a more metal take on the s/t's "Barbarian" as a bonus track. Emerson actually sounds quite good - he can't quite play at the same tempos but what he does works. I think ditching Lake for this one is probably the best thing that he could've done. I'd say it's the best ELP thing post 74, but it kinda wins that by default doesn't it?

i picked up "Tarkus" from a used record bin at Fantasyland Records yesterday for $5. i have always wondered about this album due to the odd cover art. it's pretty good but it suffers from the playing-lots-of-notes trap prog bands often fall into (sometimes never escaping) that i never cared for. i always tune out for these parts of long keyboard solos and everybody doing syncopated noodling of just lots of notes going up and down in a way that is impressive to serious music school-style Musicians. Zappa suffers from this, the Grateful Dead too. herein lies the dinosaur bloat.

i guess i've never band a fan of Math Rock though I can appreciate it as a form. i prefer a Soft Machine-style prog approach that is more based on economy and short repetitive themes. but i digress there is still a lot of cool synth rock and minimalist psychedelia and slow proto metal. Lake is a great singer! best when they let him sing over a riff and leave out the Math Rock. till prefer their first album but "Tarkus" is pretty nice!

ugh the first half of side 2 is pretty bad. really not liking the lyrics for the whole objectivist bit. ELP is trying hard to sound really profound but its all very hollow. its like a much less enjoyably musical The Wall. "Bitches Crystal" was trash. the last song here is kinda cool and sounds a little more like the first album.

for whatever reason I've started collecting ELP live recordings. there are a lot of nice ones out there! also confirms something I've suspected for a while, that Emerson's piano playing took a notable hit sometime around Works which explains why their stuff got so midtempo around then. cuz I'm listening to the '74 CalJam set (recorded 'round the same time as Welcome Back My Friends...) and he's just on fire. of course, Lake's voice never quite sounded the same either.

most pleasant surprises so far: the Emerson, Lake, and Powell live album (unimaginatively named "Live in Concert" or whatever), and one by the band 3 (Emerson, Berry, and Palmer) who turned out to be a lot of fun live even though the studio album sucked. Emerson sounds like he got some of his mojo back in the mid-80s, but man, those 90's recordings.....brutal

yea there was definitely something sad about that 2010 show (ELP's last!) during which it sounded like he was wearing mittens. then of course you had Lake, who looked like he'd put on a solid 100 lbs, unable to hit any of the original notes anymore. Palmer, on the other hand, seemingly hasn't lost a step since '72. Crazy. Anyway if you look up later videos of Keith (circa say, 2015) you can really see how he retooled his playing - his left hand is still good, but his right is stiff and you can see him struggle a lot. he's got to make this awkward claw shape which I've never seen another piano player do. even sadder since apparently a lot of it had to do with a botched surgery he got for it back in the 90's.

xp I think Robert Berry mentioned the same thing, that for someone who was massively successful and a living legend he was deeply affected by criticism. He claims that 3 broke up because Emerson had gotten too many nasty letters from fans.

I hate ELP with a burning passion. It's a combination of the total waste of talent plus the smugness plus the dated sound - rock organ hasn't aged well - plus Greg Lake. Carl Palmer was a terrific drummer who drummed his little heart out but it was all a waste because the rest of the group couldn't support him with good music. If ELP's albums were remixed so that the organ, guitar, and vocals were erased their music would be improved immensely. I could listen to Carl Palmer going rat-a-tat by himself.

It's Greg Lake that I dislike the most. I loath him. Keith Emerson couldn't write a good melody to save his life but at least he could play very quickly. Greg Lake had the bland voice of a primary school teacher playing at being a rock singer. The lyrics he had to deliver were uniformly awful but he didn't have to sing them, he could have just made squalking noises. I would still hate him but slightly less.

Pink Floyd progressed musically and Roger Waters was passionate about something; ELP were musically conservative, almost regressive for a prog band and they had no personal demons and nothing to say. Unlike Yes they didn't have a knack for soaring melodies and they weren't interested in engaging the listener's emotions. Their music was all about spectacle, but even on that level they had a very limited bag of tricks.

It's not as if their music was particularly complicated, either - it was just very fast and precise. I'm not a huge fan of Frank Zappa but occasionally he hit the spot, and his music generally had a groove. Something like "Peaches en Regalia" is musically clever and only six minutes long, "Watermelon in Easter Hay" demonstrated range. When I think of ELP I think of three stiff white driving instructors / estate agents who happen to be very good at playing instruments.

God I hate them so. Just the thought of the edge of one of their record sleeves - the brown card, the smell of old records - just the thought of vinyl albums pushes me to the edge of rage. The thought of boiling an egg with a blowtorch angers me. Heavens above my fuel is beaming. Also, yes, they're one of those bands like Bread or Uriah Heep or Steeleye Span that is locked permanently into a bygone era and will never, ever, not in a million years, not ever be fashionable ever again, not even if they're sampled by Death Grips, which they probably won't be because they didn't have a groove and it's just diddly-diddly organs all the time.

Also the stock market isn't doing well and my stocks and shares ISA is being hammered, and although I thought I was being clever with Deutsche Bank the fact is that I was nowhere near the bottom. How can a bunch of Germans fuck up running a bank? I don't care if they break the law! Can't the German government just agree not to ask too many questions? The debut album, that's the answer.

Also, yes, they're one of those bands like Bread or Uriah Heep or Steeleye Span that is locked permanently into a bygone era and will never, ever, not in a million years, not ever be fashionable ever again,

Even though I agree that ELP are irredemably terrible you are so wrong about Bread and Steeleye Span that it invalidates everything else you said.

obviously I disagree with everything in Ashley's post but it is interesting to see a hater direct their ire towards Greg Lake. he's an odd figure in the prog scene; responsible for a lot of ELP's commercial success, but also sort of a ghost...there are looooong stretches on ELP albums where you kinda forget he's even there. and nothing he wrote was even remotely proggy..."Take a Pebble", maybe? not his famous ballads, nothing on Works, certainly nothing in that short-lived solo career he did - when he's on stage holding down the bass line to "Rondo" for 15 minutes you can practically see the bored look on his face, wishing he was chainsmoking outside.

hence why the Emerson/Berry/Palmer group was kind of interesting to me, if you listen to the live recording there's a real loose and fun atmosphere to it that ELP proper never had. like when your group of friends get together, but the whiny dude who takes everything personally and always leaves in a huff can't make it. it's also interesting because Emerson sounds awesome on it - there are sections where it sounds like he's practically up to his peak. the tempos are faster than those '77-'78 recordings. so clearly something happened to him in the following years.